-
NexThought Monday: Would You Give Up Your Cellphone to Save a Child?
Last fall, University of San Francisco professor Bruce Wydick presented his students with a confounding challenge: If everybody in the classroom were to make a $50 direct cash transfer, he said, they could potentially save a poor Ugandan child's life. In fact, he added, a donor had pledged to give $50 through GiveDirectly for every student, on one simple condition: They had to part with their cell phones for two weeks. Wydick describes the fallout in this thought-provoking post.
- Categories
- Technology
-
Youth Jobs 2.0
Youth unemployment is a complex issue with no easy fix; the global economy needs to create almost 2.5 million jobs each month to absorb the youth entering the market in the next decade. But digital technoloy offers some solutions if certain concrete steps are taken – and if there's collaboration between public and private sectors.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
-
Impact Investing Goes to School: What researchers have learned about the sector – and how much they still don’t know
Cathy Clark, the founder and director of the i3 initiative, has been working at the crossroads of academic research and impact investing for over two decades. We caught up with her at last week's SOCAP15 conference to discuss where the field is heading, how it's being impacted by the academic world, and how much researchers still don't understand.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
A New Wave of Capacity Building: Enabling private investment in the university education of students in developing countries
Human capital is a nation’s most critical capacity, yet many students in developing countries can't afford a higher education. And neither scholarships and financial aid nor bank loans are sufficient to meet the level of need. Brighter Investment enables private investors to fund the university education of students in the developing world, in exchange for a fixed percentage of their future income - its co-founder discusses their unique model.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
-
Weekly Roundup – Walking Across the Bridge as You Build It
For companies that seek not only global expansion but sincerely hope to create inclusive businesses that serve lower-income people, much of the low-hanging (profitable) fruit has been taken. The next step for those businesses and their managers might be into some unfamiliar territory, especially given those managers’ educational experiences.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- academia
-
Can Anything Good Come Out of Playing Poverty?: The Two Dollar Challenge says Yes – if it’s done the right way
A lot of us feel compelled to do something about global poverty, whether it’s through mission trips, buying a pair of TOMS shoes, or starting a non-profit. Some of these approaches are effective; a lot are not. Shawn Humphrey explores the lack of consciousness that causes many anti-poverty efforts to fail, and describes how the Two Dollar Challenge hopes to help people develop this consciousness.
- Categories
- Education
-
Students, Professors are Crafting a New Social Business Curricula : At McGill, collaboration charted a social business concentration
Driven largely by student input and faculty collaboration, a new concentration in Social Business and Enterprise at McGill university is intended for students interested in harnessing the not-for-profit, civil, and for-profit sectors to tackle social issues. Leading the effort is Robert J. David, Associate Professor of Strategy & Organization. His experience is particularly illustrative of how scholars and students are working together to forge new curricula in the realm of social business.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- academia
-
Rational Exuberance: The momentum in impact investing is real – but so is the need for clarity about the changes (and challenges) underway
In spite of considerable progress in impact investing— and the staggering exuberance that’s been associated with it since it burst onto the stage— closer inspection reveals cause for serious concern in the sector. Bill Burckart details these challenges in the first post in a three-part series on the current state of impact investing, as it struggles to take the next step.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.